


Pokemon Mystery Emblem: SeveRed Rescue Team

by Garchomp445



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Yes I really will be tagging every single Pokemon in the entire game
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-22 20:37:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4849676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, but with Severa as the main protagonist. There might be a few other "subtle" alterations later on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Personality Quiz

Welcome!

This is the portal that leads into the world of Pokémon!

But before I can let you through, I have several questions for you.

I want you to answer them sincerely.

Are you ready?

Ok… Let the interview begin!

 

Can you sincerely thank someone when you are grateful?

“Hey wait! I have some complaints about how this place is run!”

I haven’t even told you the options yet, please stop talking.

“What cheek! I’m here on my own free will, you know!”

Where did you get that ridiculous idea? Also, please answer the question.

“Just a minute! Why couldn’t I speak until now? What’s going on? Whe…”

JUST SAY ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Please.

“No! I re…”

Severa’s voice suddenly cuts out. Her muffled shouts can’t be heard through the calming music.

Are you a cheerful personality?

“Ok, you already know this one. Also, that flute sounds out of tun…”

Severa responds, curtly, politely, and with just a no.

“I DID NOT!”

Do others tell you to watch what you say?

“Oh, ‘definitely’ not, there’s no one like that IN THE SAME ROOM A…”

I’ll take that as a ‘yes’

How quickly do you respond to email?

“What? Do you have a lisp or something? It’s just ‘mail’.”

No, I definitely said email.

“Uh, fine, whatever, I’ll bite. What is it?”

You’ve never heard of email?

“If you’re going to make fun of me, I swear you aren’t getting out of here with so many bruises you’ll resemble an overripe banana!”

I wasn’t going to… Ok, where in the world do you live, then?

“Ylisse? What kind of outrealm is this?”

I’ve never heard of that country. What continent is it on?

“Are you sure these are the original interview questions? You’re getting really sidetracked.”

Just answer the questions!

“Fine, fine, I have no clue. Never cared, never will.”

Do you know what planet you live on?

“Planet? Is this another thing you just made up?”

Well, you clearly have snail mail, so how quickly do you respond to that?

“Uh, only if it’s someone important.”

You come across a treasure chest! What do you do?

“It’s going to be empty… Just like your hea…”

Your country’s leader is in front of you. How do you speak to him or her?

“Chrom or Lucina?”

What? How would that be different?

“Well, Chrom’s our captain, so I’d probably tell him to stop standing around all slack-jawed and get working, but Lucina would probably be trying to spar or something else super exerting, so…”

You know them personally?

“Duh! I’m part of the shepherds! Where are you even FROM that you haven’t heard of us?”

I’m from… Wait, that’s not… You know what, I’ll just put you down as ‘Sassy’ for that one, too.

“Hey, just because you’re dumb doesn’t mean that I’...”

I need to have your mute button set up to a timer or something.

There is a bucket. If you put water in it, how high will you fill it?

“Plenty.”

It’s the summer festival! Do you like carnivals?

“Yeah.”

Are you male or female?

“Oh come on, you can’t tell? I didn’t put on all of this makeup for nothing!”

Just answer the question.

“I’m the girliest girl possible. And, I…”

That timer does work nicely.

You appear to be… The sassy type.

You tend to be somewhat cynical.

“Uh, DUH!”

Despite that, there is something appealing and lovable about you.

But do you occasionally say something arrogant that angers others?

Do you make that mistake?

Or have people called you conceited, vain, or selfish?

Have people said that about you?

“Get lost! S-seriously!”

Huh? You’re telling me to get lost?

Why, you… Come here and say that!

...Gasp!

...I’m sorry. I let my feelings run away. I truly regret this, really.

Anyway, your cool and aloof attitude is what defines you.

It makes you EXASPERATING and appealing at the same time.

A sassy person like you should be…

The Pokémon Torchic!

Sorry, you can’t pick your partner, there have been… Um…

Complications.

Let’s get you into the world of Pokémon!

Go for it!

 

“What?! Huh?! What’s even happening?!”

  
The space surrounding Severa disappears in a black haze, dissolving into nothingness. 

 


	2. Tiny Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their first adventure together! Will Cynthia and Severa succeed in the easiest dungeon in the universe, or will they be too busy hitting on each other? The shipping is completely shameless!

She bravely asks to the surrounding abyss

“Where am I?”

With no response, she shifts to internal dialogue ‘I can’t be dreaming this…’. A pleasant breeze washes over her, and a voice emanates from in front of her

“... …… ………… ...Hey? Are you all right? Wake up! COME ON!”

Severa pops straight up, the lack of hands forcing her to overbalance slightly, but she adjusts quickly. Maybe her hands are tied behind her back? There also appears to be some curious kind of giant salamander with orange fins in front of her, who says

“You’re finally awake! Great!”

Severa merely stares blankly off into space, gazing at the simple greenery around her. They’re obviously on a disused path, as such, the trees are lush and reflect the morning sun.

“You were passed out here. I’m glad you’re awake!”

Cynthia then smiles with half of her huge salamander mouth, disturbing the fins at her side, and saying

“I’m Cynthia, nice to meet you! Who are you? I haven’t seen you around, like, at all.”

Severa’s mind races, thinking ‘could Cynthia have gotten trapped here as well? Yes! This is awesome!’ before responding with

“Have you heard of anyone named Severa?”

“Yeah… Wait, Severa?! You’re a Torchic?”

“Oh, that’s what this bird thing I am is called?”

“Yup! I’m a mudkip, it’s kind of a cute salamadery thing. I’m pretty sure Laurent’s a big cat with a gem in it’s forehead, and Noire’s this small-ish floating sphere with horseshoes attached to it, and…”

With an intense interruption, Severa says

“WAIT! Are all of us here?”

“Yeah, pretty much. I’ve even seen Yarne running around, although I’m not sure he’s cut out for adventuring.”

Suddenly, from further down the path, the two girls hear

“Somebody! Please! Help me!”

They both turn to look, Cynthia getting excited about the prospect of helping someone out, and saying

“Huh?”

A gigantic butterfly nearly gives Severa pause, its cel-shaded white wings flapping anxiously for propulsion and to accentuate the worry on its tiny, purple face. Cynthia enthusiastically asks as it flaps around them

“Tell us what’s wrong, we’re here to help!”

The Butterfree is clearly extremely anxious, and excitedly relates

“It’s horrible! My Caterpie fell into a cavern! My poor baby!”

Cynthia responds quickly

“What?!”

Then the Butterfree interrupts before any more eloquent questions can be posed, saying

“A huge fissure opened in the ground, and my Caterpie fell in! He’s too young to crawl out by himself! When I went to get my baby, Pokémon suddenly attacked me!”

“What?! How dare they! Pokémon should never hurt each other!”

“They must be enraged by the fissure...and out of control! That’s what I think.”

Severa nearly smacks herself in the head. This big butterfly thing WAS worried about its kid, but now it’s just relaying conspiracy theories. She nearly opens her beak to ask it to get back to the point, but it continues heedlessly

“I’m not strong enough to fend off those wild Pokémon… What will become of my baby? Oh! What am I to do?! Oh dear, oh dear…”

Cynthia says to Severa

“All right, let’s go!”

And the two of them trundle off, Severa filled with more questions than answers. As soon as they step into the first valley, restrictive passages surrounding them, she asks

“Cynthia. That thing was a giant butterfly! How come it can’t fight anything?!”

“Uh, I’m not sure, I’ve heard that they’re super weak, but all the ones I know just refuse to fight. Maybe they’re all chicken?”

“Haha. NOT funny.”

“What? OH, right! You’re a chicken! Hahaha!”

“Sh-shut up! Let’s just get this over with! Actually, there are a lot of other Pokémon in this room, let’s just go down this side path here.”

“Sounds good to me!”

The girls head down the side path, soft, grass-covered rocky walls flanking them. This place is so fertile, though, that even in this desolate, pebble-covered chasm, there are many plants growing in the center of the many rooms. Severa doesn’t bother even glancing at them, though, preferring to guide Cynthia, practically by hand, through the narrow corridors. There’s a bit of dust in the air, sifting around in clumps of motes, almost as if this entire area is in a constant state of flux… Severa mentally makes a note to that effect. Then shouts exasperatedly

“What?! That passage is just a loop?!”

“Yeah, they aren’t called ‘Mystery Dungeons’ for nothing, hee hee!”

The pair continues back into the previous room, and as soon as they arrive, Severa lets out a sigh of relief, saying

“Nice, we won’t have to fight anyone. Also, back up, ‘Mystery Dungeons’? Is this another dumb thing I have to learn about?”

They begin crossing the broad, brown expanse, sun beating down on them over the lip of the canyon. Cynthia doesn’t seem to mind, but Severa soaks up the sunlight, feeling invigorated and, strangely, more powerful. The big salamander behind her cheerfully responds

“Yup! Although these are actually kind of neat. See, they’re like a dungeon, but they change every time you enter them!”

“Cynthia, neither of us have ever been in a dungeon before, unless you got thrown in jail as soon as you got here.”

“Oh no, I don’t think they even HAVE a jail. Everyone in town is either really nice or Laurent.”

The next passageway is just as bland as the other, Severa quickly becoming bored with just this really light brown. She takes a second to scratch at a wall with her foot, and scores a thin mark down the soft stone. So either her claws are really sharp, or the wall is really soft. Cynthia interrupts with

“Oh cool, can we play tic-tac-toe or something?”

“Ugh, why not. Just make the rest of the board.”

“Erm. Uh.”

Cynthia smushes her soft front leg against the wall, accomplishing absolutely nothing, but confirming Severa’s theory that her claws are quite sharp.

“Maybe we could try with a softer wall?”

“Let’s just move on.”

They continue down the dusty, sunny corridor, turn with the corridor into another, shadier path. Then a big red caterpillar jumps out from nowhere and smacks Severa in the face. She shouts

“HEY!”

and smacks it back, and Cynthia growls cutely behind her for some weird reason. The spiky caterpillar has two large stingers on its back, but it still resolutely just smacks Severa for some reason. She hits it with the flat of her claw again, and it appears to regain its senses, running away immediately. Severa announces

“Cynthia! What was that?!”

“Uh, we just got attacked by a Wurmple?”

“No, I mean that really cute growl! N-not that I think you’re…”

Severa awkwardly gulps, then continues glaring at Cynthia until she responds with a wide, very amused, fishy smile, then says

“It actually causes other Pokémon to deal less damage! Kinda neat, huh?”

“Y-yeah… Sure. Moving on!”

The corridor goes on for a while longer, but they swiftly come to another turn, and a crossroads. Severa chooses the path with slightly less gravel covering everything, grumbling to herself about path maintenance before they come out into another large room, leafy plants filling the middle. On the other side of the room, Severa spies something of definite interest. A large, yellowish coin. She approaches it slowly, glancing back at the unperturbed Cynthia to make sure she hasn’t seen it yet, then runs over to pick it up. However, as soon as she steps over it, it disappears, she feels an invisible number ticks up, and the narrator returns, saying

Poké is the money in this world. Collect and save it to buy useful items.

Slightly bewildered, Severa turns to Cynthia to ask

“Uh, did you hear anyone talk?”

“Nope! Did you?”

“I guess not.”

Over to the right, along the wall the large coin was sitting next to, is a tiny, rocky path downwards. Severa sets foot on it, Cynthia egging her on with

“Yeah, that’s how you use stairs!”

“Shut up! It’s just WEIRD is all, who builds stairs in the middle of a forest?!”

“You’re just upset that I’m right!”

“Oh my gods.”

Severa tries to ignore the cheery axolotl, carefully hopping down the narrow path. It’s much darker in here, almost like a small cave, but it suddenly stops, and Severa nearly loses her balance at the lip of the cliff. It’s just a small drop down, but neither her nor Cynthia would be able to get back up without a lot of help. Unfortunately, this kind of rocky path is extremely good at tripping people, and Cynthia falls on her belly with an

“Oof!”

launching the annoyed Torchic into the next floor, where she’s immediately set upon by a fierce-looking brown bird. It hops up to her aggressively, hopping up and down like it’s trying to size her up, so she slashes at it with a claw, the unnecessarily powerful attack instantly causing it to retreat. She comments

“What a pushover. It didn’t even attack me!”

“I know! Maybe we could spar later for a real challenge.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

Severa wanders around the room, picking up more of those large coins kind of obsessively; moreover, definitely thinking of what she could buy with it. Perhaps she could buy a stylish scarf to go with her feathers? Preening is going to be quite the hassle, and she won’t be able to use a hairbrush. As she wanders off down another corridor, Cynthia shouts

“Hey! The stairs are right here! Come on!”

“What? Last time we went down one, you fell on me!”

“Fine, I’ll stay behind you this time!”

The next path is very similar to the last one, curving down through soft rock and notable moisture coming from the walls, but then curving back up to head towards a cliff face. She sees another one of those puny brown birds hopping about, and jumps down with Cynthia, saying

“I thought you said you would stay behind me!”

“Sorry! I got impatient waiting.”

“I glanced around for half a second!”

“Yeah? What about it?”  
“Sheesh!”

Severa walks over to the bird, but decides to lead it over to Cynthia instead to see how she handles battle, sidestepping to get it within Cynthia’s range, then running away as the start fighting. Cynthia begins with a

“Severa?!”

but smacks the bird anyway, who responds with a weak wing slap. Cynthia ducks just as it strikes, taking no damage, then responds with a cute growl, making the bird and Severa pause slightly. The angry-looking bird puts the ruffles on its chest to good use by lamely tackling Cynthia, but the Mudkip is still taken aback, and responds with another smack as Severa rejoins the melee. The Pidgey runs away, having regained its senses with that last blow. Cynthia is put off, and glares at Severa, saying

“Hey! Why didn’t you help me there?”

“I was just trying to see if you could do anything besides cut- I mean, uselessly, growl at our enemies. You did… erm, pretty well.”

Severa’s already orange feathers blush slightly, and Cynthia decides that it’s completely adorable, smiling back heedless of how Severa might take it. The Torchic embarrassedly replies

“D-don’t get any ideas, though!”

“Hee hee! I like you too, Severa!”

Severa needs to distract herself, and spies a small berry on the ground, and picking it up, immediately hears from the very same narrator

An Oran Berry restores HP. Open the menu with (B) and select it under Items.

So it must be just like a vulnerary for Pokémon? Severa admits that that’s slightly laughable, the tiny, blue, spotted berry barely looks like it could feed a few flies, nevertheless, she sees an excited look from Cynthia, who says

“Ooh, that’s a…”

“Powerful healing item, I know. A disembodied voice just told me.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, I’m kind of puzzled myself.”

She puts its stalk in her beak, and is impressed by the sun’s ability to shine down two levels of this odd, caven-covered forest. She begins stepping through the dust again, but sees another, pink berry with white spots on the ground. She tries to pick it up, too, but it’s impossible to hold more than one thing in her beak, so she says

“Mhmmh…”

“What? Severa, are you all right?”

Then just shoves Cynthia on top of the berry, forcing her to figure out what it is. Cynthia lets out an

“Oooh, thanks for the Pecha Berry!”

She picks it up with her mouth too, and the two walk off into another unexciting corridor in begrudging silence. A few twists and turns later, they arrive in another large room, with the path downward practically at their feet. Severa tries to avoid the leafy plants trying to forge a life in this pleasantly warm ravine, but Cynthia just stomps right through them, and they begin their journey through the narrow, rocky stairs. This one is even shorter, stopping just twenty stepping stones away. As Severa hops bravely, and Cynthia tries not to trip, they hear

“Waaaaah… Mommy… Where are you…? Sniffle…”

Coming out of the gravel and onto a narrow path, the two girls see the pitiable caterpillar, this one much greener and friendlier-looking than the Wurmple from before. Cynthia announces

“We’re here to rescue you!”

“Huh?”

Severa truly feels bad for it, the tears running down its face showing how upset it must’ve been, but she must strike an awkward picture herself. Before announcing their presence, Cynthia threw her pink, spotted berry at Severa, who reflexively caught it with her foot, forcing her to stand slightly off-balance right next to the ‘heroic’ Mudkip. Cynthia continues, saying

“You mom’s waiting. Let’s you you out!”

The caterpillar appears to compose itself excitedly and quickly, neatly responding with

“OK.”

They turn around, Severa hopping angrily on one foot, trying to give Cynthia back her berry, but the Mudkip resolutely ignores her, instead making idle conversation with the caterpillar as they march back up the narrow, rocky path. Cynthia says

“Say, what’s your favorite colour, Caterpie?”

“Ooh, I like greens! They’re really soft and friendly.”

“Neat! I’ve always liked blue myself, which is cool since I’m completely blue! Hee hee!”

“Um, ma’am?”

“Yeah?”

“Is there anything wrong with your friend? Does she have a broken leg?”

“Nope, she’s just weird!”

Severa trembles with rage as the caterpillar turns back around to continue inching up the path. Cynthia seems to know what she’s doing, though, and finds an easy climb which goes all the way back up to the forest Severa woke up in. The breeze up here is much more pleasant, but Severa despises the shade for some reason. It turns out that the huge butterfly had been freaking out up here the entire time, and as soon as she sees her Caterpie, she announces

“My baby’s safe… I’m sorry, I don’t know how I could ever thank you properly…”

She doesn’t even glance over to the odd sight Severa must make, instead focusing entirely on Cynthia, who says

“Oh, that’s OK! It’s been kinda dangerous with all the sudden earthquakes, fissures, and other stuff, so it was great to find your son perfectly unharmed!”

Severa puts down the two berries, neatly placing them in a row, then raising her beak slightly as a kind of aloof dignity, perhaps to gain ground lost by hopping around on one leg. Butterfree breezily responds, clearly amazed at Cynthia and Severa’s work, saying  
“Please, may I have your names at least?”

“No problem, I’m Cynthia, and this is Severa!”

The caterpillar begins staring at Severa with total awe, swiftly putting the two names to memory. He simply says

“............ Cool…”

Severa gives him kind of an odd glance, really not convinced that what she did was that hard. She tries not to look at his adorable, sparkly eyes, and Cynthia seems just as iffy about the whole situation. Still, she has to admit that it’s kinda neat being adored. Back in Ylisse, they’d be lucky if they were allowed to stick around in towns they saved for more than a few hours. She feels that this could be a nice job to consider. Caterpie continues, saying

“Thank you! Cynthia and Severa!”

and Butterfree, with even more thanks on her proboscis, says

“I know it isn’t really enough, but this is a token of our thanks. Please accept it.”

She hands over an Oran Berry, a Pecha Berry, and a Rawst Berry.

“Thank you so much. Good-bye.”

As Butterfree and Caterpie leave, Severa racks her mind over what they could possibly do with five berries, and Cynthia isn’t helping, especially when she stares blankly around, then says

“Hey, we should go back to my house! Most of us stay there, actually, so it’s kind of like a sleep-over every day.”

“Yeah, but what are we going to do with these five berries?!”

“Huh. I dunno. Maybe we could leave them?”

“No. If these are powerful healing items, we need to keep them around. What if we get poisoned, Cynthia?”

“Well, walking up or down stairs usually solves it for me…”

“That… doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know, right?”

“Fine, YOU can go on ahead, but I’m staying here until I figure out a way to carry all of these.”

“Wait, how about you carry all of them, then I can carry you!”

“What? Are you that strong?”

“Uh, yeah, I can carry boulders really easily, and you’re just a tiny bird.”

“Hey!”

“I didn’t say you weren’t cute!”

“H-hey!”

Severa grabs two berries in each hand, and one in her mouth, then Cynthia comes up behind her, and acts as a squishy, but serviceable mount.

 

\--

 

Pretty soon, they get out of the forest, and onto a much more level road. Cynthia announces

“Cool! We’re here!”

and unceremoniously dumps Severa at the front door. She shouts

“GAWDS!”

drops all five berries, then sees the house. It looks like an inviting, rocky kiln, fire flanking the simple brick fence surrounding the plain dirt lawn. It’s definitely magnificent, in Severa’s opinion, sticks near the base of the house a perfect firestarter, and a rough, cobblestone path up to the house proper. Severa’s eyes gleam as she beholds this majesty, the simple white banner on a nearby flagpole waving about with her excited gaze. Cynthia giggles condescendingly, saying

“Oh, Severa. You’re clearly enamored, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so excited!”

“Wh-What are you talking about?!”

Severa attempts to appear calm and reasonable, but Cynthia ignores her as she explains a bit more about the house, stepping over to the mailbox to say

“This is our mailbox, we get mail occasionally. Like I said earlier, there are a bunch of natural disasters, so a few Pokémon send mail out to get rescued! So far, Laurent, Kjelle, Nah, Lucina, Owain, and a few others have been helping me out with rescuing them. Wanna join?”

“Duh, especially with this…interesting house. What do you call yourselves?”

“Well, Lucina just wanted to call ourselves the Shepherds, but I only now finished the paperwork to actually get our rescue team equipment, hee hee, so you could change the name now if you want.”

“I don’t care at all.”

“All right!”

Then Severa suddenly blacks out.

 

And that is how

Severa and Cynthia began their careers together as a rescue team.

“Narrator! You’re back! Ok, can I just, PLEASE get a few things straight?”

Fine. Make it quick, though.

“What in the world is a Pokémon?”

Get. Out.

“Geez, grumpy much?”

 

 


	3. Thunderwave Cave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cynthia and Severa meet up with some old friends, and rescue another.

The next morning…

Severa comes to, realizing that she’s still a Torchic, but doesn’t care about that, since there happens to be an absolutely incredible amount of Pokémon in this room. She counts thirteen in total, including herself and Cynthia. There’s an upturned bowl on a stone table, a sword hanging on the fireplace behind her, two blue and pink duck-like creatures hovering above the two fires to her left, Cynthia next to a blue and white frilled snake across the room in a bucket of water, a big cat over by the table holding a masked gecko, a ferocious-looking bull creature laying by the two fires to her right, and finally, a large green bladed insect with brown highlights with a green-haired, red-horned, nightgown-clad creature lying on one blade, and a large hunk of metal lying on the other. Severa nearly screeches out of confusion, instead simply yelling

“WHAAT?! Who are all of you?!”

The bull creature nearly singes itself trying to retreat from the loud noise, the sword falls down, nearly hitting Severa on the head, the cat and its gecko are both instantly alert, a creepy bug head peers out of the bowl, blinking warily, Cynthia grabs the snake and shoots some water to wake it up, both the lump of metal and white-robed creature jump off of the bladed bug, who jumps up to its full height, nearly five times that of Severa, and the two ducks spin around their legs, float a various heights, and almost succeed in burning themselves before spinning back up. The sword unsheathes itself and floats upright, directly in front of Severa, who lets out a tiny screech at the sight, but stops in time for the sword to say

“Severa, I’m glad you’re awake. We have much to catch up on.”

“AAACTUALLY, C-can we start with who all these random monsters are?!”

“Right, introductions. I’m Lucina, or Honedge as I’m known in the village.”

`She points her blade over to the purple bull creature, who immediately stands terrified and rigid, even with its immense body completely blocking Severa’s view of the two fires behind it, and says

“That is Brady, or Granbull,”

She stabs into the ground and gestures with her ornate, curved sheath towards the two duck creatures, who are currently excitedly spinning in place, then says

“Those are the Morgans, they are also both Porygon,”

“Hi Severa!”

“We’re so glad to have you back!”

Lucina then motions towards the large green and brown insect posing with its blade-arms in the middle of the room, who announces

“I am the mighty Owain, wielder of the white and green blades of justice! Some people also call me Scyther.”

Lucina points to the two creatures barely as tall as Owain’s shins, saying

“That one is Kjelle, or Aron”

While pointing at the well-armoured four-legged lump of metal which Severa still can’t see as an actual creature, and says

“That one is Inigo, or Ralts,

While pointing at the nightgown-clad creature with extremely awkward horns. Severa stares at them for a bit, then realizes that they’re lined up front-to-back, and are circular disks. Inigo attempts to say at the distracted Torchic

“At your service, milady!”

but his curtsy neither helps his point or grants him any additional dignity. Lucina waves over to the table, announces

“Yarne is hiding under the bowl, he’s called Nincada, Laurent is the large cat called Persian, and Gerome is the gecko wearing a mask. He’s also called Treecko.”

Lucina then points over to where Nah is emerging from the tiny bucket of water, and says

“Next to Cynthia is Nah, who’s also called Dratini. Laurent, did I get all of the Pokémon names correct?”

“Affirmative.”

“We haven’t be…”

Severa suddenly interrupts

“Wait, where’s Noire?”

“She’s with a group of other Magemite. Most of us go out to rescue other Pokémon, so we decided that she would be safer with a local group.”

“Hmpf.”

Inigo views the tapestry of emotions flowing through the room, the Morgans, Owain, and Cynthia’s excitement, Kjelle, Lucina, Laurent, and Gerome’s solemnity, Yarne, Brady, and Severa’s anxiety. Her anxiety is kind of overwhelming, full of odd spikes and dips, buffeting Inigo with its varied waves. He tries to make a joke to lighten her mood, saying

“Hey Severa, I’ll bet you’re most looking forward to sparring with us a-again!”

“Inigo? What’s wrong? You’re not looking too healthy.”

“N-nothing a-at aaaaOW OW GODS! I need to… ugh!”

Inigo clutches his head and runs out of the room, the tapestry of emotions shifting horribly unfavorably. Of COURSE Severa would feel a lot of anxiety, he just didn’t think it would be THAT much, and the emotions felt for him? I-it was definitely honest concern. The sun shines brightly just outside of the brick house, and he slumps down behind one of the outer walls. Inside of said house, Severa tries to run out to figure out what’s wrong with a

“What! Inigo?!”

but Lucina drops her sheathe to grab the curious Torchic about the waist. Across the room, Laurent motions with a paw to adjust his glasses, realizing too late that he doesn’t have any, but speaks anyway

“Inigo has the innate ability to sense emotions. Negative emotions are highly unpleasant for him.”

“What? How’s that even possible?”

“Many things in this world do not make sense, or seem completely arbitrary at first. For instance, both Lucina and Kjelle are primarily composed of metal, but Lucina is completely immune to fighting moves, while Kjelle is extremely weak to them.”

“That’s nothing more training can’t fix!”

“Actually, Kjelle, my research suggests…”

Severa interrupts before the two can begin fighting, saying

“Thank you for your VALUABLE input, but can we maybe clarify what you’ve been doing? You mentioned ‘rescues’? Also, what’s wrong with Yarne?”

Lucina awkwardly tries to reply, none of them are particularly proud of the negligible progress they’ve made since coming here. Laurent only knows all he does through vigorous questioning of the various Pelipper and the Whiscash, and thanks to handing off the clerical responsibilities to Cynthia, none of them have actually gotten done. She says

“Uh, which order do you want those answered in?”

but it appears Severa already has an order in mind, hopping up to the bowl containing the flattest insect of the party. Nah begins to answer Severa’s other question, heedless of her actual actions, saying

“Um, I kinda hate to admit this, but we’ve mostly just been searching for each other since we got here. It doesn’t help that we can’t go on any proper rescue missions since SOMEONE hasn’t turned the paperwork in yet.”

Nah turns to glare directly at the slightly cowering Cynthia, who responds to the massive length of scaly dragon with a confident, but jittery

“H-hey, I actually did turn it in once Severa showed up! It might even be here now!”

A ‘clunk’ is heard from outside, and a Pelipper’s voice rings out to say

“Oh! Howdy, Ralts! I almost didn’t see you behind that fence!”

“Ah, I bid you good day as well! Thanks for the mail.”

“This is quite th’ load, too, have you kids gotten more popular? Haha!”

“No, sadly, we’re just forming a rescue team.”

“Well! Good day, and good luck!”

The rest of the crew has already sprinted from the house and is swarming the mailbox, Laurent sitting in the back to shield Yarne from the sun and provide a perch for Gerome. Owain tries to shove Cynthia out of the way to look in the mailbox first, but she just throws him into the middle of the road, with Lucina, Nah and Severa crowded around her. The morgans lazily float above the mailbox, and Brady timidly steps out of the house as Cynthia pulls all of the mail out. She announces, Owain closing back in on her,

“The Rescue Team Starter Set! Yay, Nah can’t yell at me anymore!”

“I have no doubts I’ll be able to find something else to yell about…”

“All right, seven rescue team badges, seven toolboxes, and an issue of Pokémon News! Neat!”

“By what I’ve heard, the Rescue Team Badge…”

Owain suddenly interrupts Laurent from behind the girls surrounding the mailbox, posing with one segmented brown-and-green foot on top of Kjelle’s disk-shaped metallic face

“Reveals to the world our true nature as a rescue team, the noble defenders of justice and order, the skillful defenders of this world, the…”

“GET OFF OF ME!”

Kjelle tackles towards Owain’s propped-up foot, causing him to completely lose balance and fall off, but quickly rights himself by fluttering the vestigial, but still useful, white wings on his back. Kjelle lets out a sort of metallic screech in rage, but calms herself down before Inigo can complain. Laurent lets out an exasperated sigh, especially as one Morgan steals the issue of Pokémon News, and the other takes a toolbox to explain its function, saying

“Toolboxes can be used to carry items inside and out of dungeons. Hey, how about we put that pile of berries in one?”

Cynthia runs off to pick them up, saying

“Gotcha! First good idea Severa and I’ve had with them!”

“Hey!”

Morgan floats down with the toolbox, holding it with the tip of his beak. Lucina prods into the otherwise empty mailbox with her hilt, and Nah heckles the other Morgan for the newspaper, saying

“Morgan! We’ll need to read that too, I know you’re airheaded, but try not to float off!”

“Roger!”

Lucina floats to the end of the brick path, as a central location to express her proclamation to the group as a whole, saying

“All right, Shepherds, Laurent and I have selected the teams for type compatibility, we’ll just need to retrieve Noire for one of the groups.”

The kids settle down for a long lecture, the Morgans doling out toolboxes and rescue badges. Severa leans against the front of the mailbox, Cynthia hides underneath it, examining her badge while leaning on top of the toolbox, Yarne has dug himself a little hole next to the brick path, Laurent and Gerome are apparently posing triumphantly with their toolbox and badge respectively, Inigo has wandered over to comfort Brady, who admonishes any feelings of anxiety, Kjelle is glaring menacingly at Owain while trapped in Nah’s coils behind Lucina, and Owain pretends to be a normal person for a few seconds, slouched on the hard, packed dirt in front of their house. Before Lucina can even begin speaking, though, another Pelipper appears from nowhere with a single letter. This one arrives without a word, and Severa moves just enough to let it deposit its letter inside, but snatches it up as soon as the Pelipper calmly floats away. The whole group waits for her to read it aloud, but she reads the whole thing by herself, quickly becoming more and more panicked with its words

“BZZ BZZ BZZ!

I HEARD ABOUT YOU FROM CATERPIE.

PLEASE, WE NEED YOUR HELP. NOIRE IS IN TROUBLE.

A STRANGE ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE FLOWED THROUGH A DUNGEON…

AND IT STUCK TOGETHER NOIRE AND MAGNEMITE…

THAT ISN’T ENOUGH TO FORM A MAGNETON. IT’S NOT COMPLETE THE WAY IT IS NOW.

PLEASE, WE NEED HELP. BZZ BZZ BZZ.

 

FROM NOIRE’S FRIEND”

As soon as she finishes it, Severa gives Cynthia a desperate look, and the two of them sprint off in the uncharacteristically sweet morning air, abandoning the letter behind them. The group left behind starts to set off after them, but Lucina stops them, allowing Gerome to read the letter aloud.

 

\--

 

With a rocky crag before them, and a crisp morning breeze at their backs, Cynthia and Severa cease their dead sprint when they see the two floating spheres anxiously patrolling the front of the cave. A strange, metallic scent fills the air, and the two girls have a vague feeling of vertigo as they approach the Magnemite. One says

“OH, YOU ARE HERE. BZBZBZZ! MY FRIENDS ARE IN THIS CAVERN. BZBZBZZ. MY FRIENDS SHOULD BE ON B6F. PLEASE HELP THEM! BZBZBZZZT!”

“Noire’s our friend too! Of course we’re going to help her!”

With that weak rallying cry, Cynthia and Severa charge into the darkness, flanked on all sides by jagged rocks. Immediately through the entrance, Cynthia and Severa stumble, then fall down a small cliff into what looks like a normal ravine, albeit full of rough stones. The sun is shining down here, and even with the strange shadows being cast from overhanging jagged stones, sparse patches of tough blue grass still grow among the field of brown rocks. Severa hears

Defeat foes using moves instead of (A) attacks for more Exp. Points. Choose and set the move you want to use.

before she notices a path downward just behind the slowly-recovering Cynthia, and a black dog behind that. She approaches Cynthia’s side, helping her up with one claw as the dog slowly walks towards them, growling threateningly. Its fur is matted, spotted with dirt and sticking up in odd places, but it seems slightly reluctant to actually attack them. Severa growls cutely at it, unfortunately enthralling the axolotl to her side as well, and stands her ground as the dog leaps at her. She responds with a smack across the nose, and Cynthia does the same to its side, but the dog still has enough energy to attack her with a weak headbutt. She forces it off her with a vicious claw attack, but the Poochyena doesn’t regain its senses until Cynthia smacks it again. It sprints off through the rocky pillars, obviously more terrified than is reasonable. Severa sighs exasperatedly, then charges down the rough path. It takes them through a dry cave, but they quickly descend to a different level. As soon as she sets foot on the first uneven surface, she hears

Choose a partner with the Team command and set its tactics and IQ skills. Cooperation with partners is the key!

Then notices that the current dry ravine she’s in is full of items. The closest one is a small seed lying on the ground, the disembodied voice proclaiming of it

A Blast Seed flames the foe you are facing. Turn to face the foe, then use the item.

Cynthia hastily places it in the toolbox, prompting Severa to shout

“Hey! What if it explodes?!”

“Oh, don’t worry! I’m pretty sure it only works when you eat it.”

“Pretty sure? Hmph.”

Severa begrudgingly gestures towards the next item, still appalled at Cynthia’s total nonchalance over explosive devices. It looks almost identical to any ordinary apple from Ylisse, so Severa just sits there to ask Cynthia

“Um, is that what it looks like?”

“What? The rocks? Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’re just…”

“No! I mean that… Appley looking thing.”

“That’s an apple.”

“Oh. Wait, seriously?! Of all of the normal things in this weird universe, we still get to have APPLES?! GAH!”

Severa blushes at Cynthia’s casual chuckle, then hears

Eating an Apple of Gummi fills your Belly. Choose them under Items in the menu and eat one before your Belly gets empty.

She tries to think something sarcastic back at that overly obvious description, but it’s clear she doesn’t share the narrator’s power of telepathy. As she picks up the last item, two purple rats hop into the room, and she backs herself and Cynthia against a corner to limit their opponent’s approach. That doesn’t seem necessary, though, as both aggressive-looking rats just charge at them heedlessly. Severa growls cutely before taking a wide slash at the first rat, defeating it instantly.

Then she hears something truly odd.

Severa grew to Level 6!

“Huh?! I feel, like, way stronger!”

She feels a bit healthier, her claws feel sharper, her fur fluffier, and she can see battles more tactically.

Almost simultaneously, she hears almost the same thing from Cynthia to her side

Cynthia grew to Level 6!

“All right! Level-up time! Severa, Severa! Now I can slap people with mud!”

“What?! Is that seriously an actual tactic?”

“I’m pretty sure Laurent used to know a move called sand-attack, hee hee!”

“This place is completely ridiculous.”

The next rat comes up, and is swiftly put back down with two smacks from the newly powered-up girls. Severa unfortunately has to admit to the effectiveness of such odd events, and groans to Cynthia, saying

“Uuuuugh… Cynthia… How did we get stuck inside of one of your hero fantasies?!”

“I know, it’s great!”

They move into the next narrow corridor, sun beating down above them, strange metal atmosphere all around, and quickly settle into an exploration routine. The next room has a strange panel adorned with an arrow mark, so when Severa shows her confusion with a tilted head, Cynthia giggles slightly at the cute expression and is quick with an explanation before that confusion can give way to anger, saying

“Oh, those panels are really helpful, you just step on one if your stats have been lowered.”

“You know, this dungeon will go a lot faster if you don’t condescendingly giggle whenever I don’t know something.”

“Hee hee! You’re so cute when you blush!”

“Agh! Shut up!”

Severa storms down the only other path out of the room, scrabbling over the rough stones, with Cynthia in hot pursuit. Severa slows down once they reach the next room and its stairs leading even further downward. She reluctantly leaves the comforting sunlight to traipse down the unsteady path, this one practically made out of gravel. The next floor looks even more promising, with an interesting looking rock, more money, and another

Hold (B) then press + to speed up movement. Hold (R) then press + to move only diagonally.

completely asinine telepathic message. Maybe if the narrator was apologizing for being so mean, THAT would be worth hearing, but not… Um, whatever that message meant… Severa just idly picks up a large nearby rock with her claw, prompting YET ANOTHER telepathic message

Gravelerocks can be lobbed at distant foes. Set them for use under Items. Hold (L) then press (R) to throw them.

Well, it IS the perfect size and shape for throwing, IF she had any hands! Severa pushes it over to Cynthia, complaining idly

“Ugh, this rock would just be PERFECT for throwing, but I don’t have any hands!”

“Woah, yeah, that is true! You’re just like Kjelle, Nah, and Owain!”

“That’s a SLIGHT hyperbole there, Cynthia…”

“No, they don’t have any hands either.”

“You said I was… Whatever.”

She motions towards the exit path, another unwelcome dip into a cave, but Cynthia is still overly puzzled, saying

“Wait, what did you mean by whatever?! Severa?”

“Cynthia.”

“I swear I won’t judge if it’s something embarrassing.”

“Cynthia, you’re going to trip if you stop paying attention.”

“Nah, I got thisaaaaagh!”

Cynthia accidentally tackles a much angrier Severa into the next floor, coincidentally right next to the next path downwards. She almost screeches

“What did I JUST tell you?!”

“Um, you didn’t tell me what you meant by whatever.”

Eat an Apple or Gummi when your Belly goes down. Being famished can cause faint… SHUT UP

After shushing the noisy telepath, Severa turns back to Cynthia with an icy glare, and explains while she picks up another Gravelerock and continues on the downward path, saying

“I meant that you said I was JUST like Kjelle, Nah, and Owain, when there are clear differences between us, but now it’s not funny anymore since you forced me to explain it!”

Her voice rising in pitch, volume, and speed with each phrase, ‘it’ practically coming out as a chirp. Severa’s glare indicated that she was still mad, though, and Cynthia replies as a small concession

“W-well, in retrospect, it probably would’ve been clever if I had heard it.”

then accentuates it with a bright smile. Severa can’t stay mad for long at this girl, instead choosing to let out her anger in a sigh, then says, more calmly than before

“If it’s any consolation, I’ve never found you clever either.”

then gives Cynthia a huge smirk, her teasing intent clear, but the Mudkip still responds with

“Aw! Severa!”

and an adorable puppy-dog face, her eyes sparkling gently in the beams of light. Severa smiles back, then realizes with a start that this is the first floor without an annoying telepathic message. She internally celebrates, but then hears a strange, overly electric noise in the corner of the room. She backs up next to Cynthia in order to take in this strange sight before her, gaping slightly with a

“Wha…”

Cynthia doesn’t seem too surprised to see the large red and white sphere with two angry eyes rolling its way towards them, so Severa growls to see what happens. Besides Cynthia gazing at her more longingly, the orb doesn’t even flinch, so Severa merely asks Cynthia

“What in the blazes is that thing.”

“Oh, it’s some sort of electric ball. They like exploding.”

“WHAT IS WITH YOU BEING SO CALM AROUND EXPLOSIONS?!”

“They tend to happen a lot! Geez, don’t yell!”

Severa lets the Voltorb approach first, but smacks it first, allowing Cynthia’s tackle to finish it off. She spies an Oran berry nestled between some rocks, and acquires it up before choosing which path to follow. Heading north, through even more dry and jagged rocks, they come to a room with another Oran berry and some coins, both of which Severa quickly nabs, but when she enters the next corridor, an odd-looking creatures blocks her path. It’s adorned with black and yellow stripes across its circular body, with an especially obvious black lightning bolt on its chest. It twirls its arms as it approaches, sparking electricity between its head-prong-things, threateningly glaring with each step, so Severa grabs a rock and kicks it forcefully, causing it to stumble backwards slightly, but it keeps moving just long enough to get hit by Severa’s next attack. The bewildered creature attempts to climb out of the ravine, but instead just settles with hiding in a corner until Severa and Cynthia pass by. Cynthia congratulates Severa on her solo fighting by saying

“Hey, you didn’t need me this time!”

“Since when did I need you to hold my ha… I mean claw when I fight?!”

“Aw, you’re blushing again, aren’t you!”

“Shut UP!”

Then continue through the narrowing corridors. They make a turn around a sunny bend, then Severa finds herself with a very odd situation. Another one of those rotund prong-headed creatures is directly in front of her, but peering just around a corner is an excited-looking mouse standing on two feet. She can’t see it perfectly clearly, but it appears to be mostly peach and red. She reasons quickly, deciding that the rotund, yellow creature should be her priority since it was taken down so easily last time, and kicks another rock at it. The rock inexplicably adjusts its trajectory in mid-air to hit the mouse instead, but Severa’s adrenaline is going too much to be thrown off by that, so she growls as her next attack, to let them draw closer. She sizes up the mouse some more, noticing a clear plus sign motif as it approaches. A weak smack, and the plus-mouse creature runs off, and the rotund creatures appears to have gotten bored and ran off as well. Severa rolls her eyes and continues on her way. The next room just has one exit and another of those inexplicable arrow-mark panels, so Severa makes another sardonic remark towards Cynthia, saying

“I swear these walls are conspiring to make this dungeon as boring as possible. Just lengthen the amount we have to walk a bit more, please”

“Well, I don’t think it’s THAT boring, I mean, look at all the… um, grass?”

“REALLY convincing me there.”

“Oh, shush!”

They move into the next corridor, rocks below them putting in a special effort to be as random and unpredictably placed as possible, the strange jagged edges really accentuating the crags sticking up through the sky. Another room passes without note, but Severa is approached in another corridor by one of those odd sphere things, and wary of explosions, forces Cynthia ahead of her, saying

“H-hey, how about you try out that mud-slapping move you told me about?”

“Ooh, that’s actually a good idea!”

The sphere approaches, and is immediately put out of its misery with some well-placed mud, and just stares blankly as another Pokémon tries its hand at attacking Severa and Cynthia. It’s another of the rotund creatures, Severa can clearly see it over Cynthia’s head, which means that she can also see it sidestep Cynthia’s attack, the wad of mud instead settling into the wall around a corner. She gets another chance to attack, and lands a massive blow, but the creature survives and jolts forward quickly to bash Cynthia with one of its thick forearms. Severa can’t stand for this, and instead just kicks a rock over the Mudkip’s head to injure it herself. It manages to avoid that too, but Cynthia’s follow-up attack hits it square in the face, causing it to regain its senses. It leaves with the red-and-white sphere in tow, both too confused to speak. The next room for Severa and Cynthia contains another gravel cave, and Severa takes an anxious sigh as she remembers that the next floor is the one the other Magnemite said Noire would be. With a cautious step, she slips on the first pile of gravel, and falls all the way down the path with Cynthia. At the end is a small-ish room, both Magnemite fused together, but the eye of one is clearly very excited when it sees Cynthia, who announces

“Great! We found you! Let’s get everyone out.”

During their much less accident-prone trip up the gravel pile, Cynthia introduces one half of the fused-together magnemites, saying

“Hey, Noire, this Torchic is Severa! I found her lying in a field near our house, oh, and we finally got all of the exploration stuff ready, so you can join us, too!”

“I-IS TH-THAT SO.”

“Cynthia, I don’t think Noire’s totally up for conversing right now. Although I’m mostly just surprised that you haven’t tripped UP these stairs yet.”

“HEY! I’m not that accident prone!”

Cynthia slips and falls onto the first landing they’ve arrived at this entire climb, but the clear light and lack of magnetism proves that this is finally the exit. As soon as Severa pushes the two magnemites clear of the magnetic field, Cynthia manages to get back up, and the other Magnemite joyously announces

“OUR BODIES SEPARATED. BZBZBZZ. REJOICE! BZBZBZZT!”

Another Magnemite adds,

“YAY! BZBZBZZT!”

Then the original one says,

“YAY! BZBZBZZT!”

before the non-Noire Magnemite on the left happily concludes,

“BE THANKFUL, YOU TWO.”

then turns to Severa and Cynthia to say

“YOU ARE OUR HERO. THANK YOU.”

The Magnemites hand over 500 Poké, a Reviver Seed, and a Rawst berry, before bidding farewell, saying

“WE MUST BID YOU FAREWELL. GOODBYE.”

Severa doesn’t see Noire trying to leave them, so she says

“Hey, wait, Noire, we need you to come with us.”

The Magnemites turn around to face the pair of girls, with one in the center peering down awkwardly at the ground before saying

“oh, I… I thought you didn’t want me around…”

Cynthia enthusiastically adds with a smile

“Nonsense! You’re part of the team!”

Noire turns around to address her Magnemite compatriots, saying

“c-could I go with them instead?”

“OF COURSE.”

“YOU GO WITH OUR BEST WISHES”

“BZBZBZZT. WE WILL MISS YOU.”

“thank you so much. BZZBZZBZZT. IT WAS NICE BEING WITH YOU. THANK YOU FOR THE HOSPITALITY.”

“ANYTHING FOR A FELLOW MAGNETITE. GOODBYE FOR NOW.”

The Magnetites, leaving Noire, float off through the forest. Cynthia pumps one foot in the air, saying

“Yay! Everyone will be really happy to see you again, Noire!”

“T-truly?”

Severa walks up to her, and says

“I know I already am. Seriously, I can’t believe that they wouldn’t constantly try to watch over you! Are you all right?”

“Yeah, thanks…”

Cynthia suddenly interrupts slightly, always one to dramatize the situation, saying

“Well, that certainly worked out well! I don’t know about you two, but I’m beat, those rocks were NOT easy on the feet.”

As though due to some arbitrary stimuli, Severa blacks out.

 

Would you like to save your adventure?

>Yes

No

 

Saving your adventure…

Please do not turn off the power.

 

Save completed!

 

 

…

…………

…………..

“Where… is this?”

With the pulsating green aura around her, she sincerely hopes this is a dream. Her body feels immobile and drowsy, and the featureless plain shows no sign of meaning. Even with her every feeling numb to sensation, she still has the sense that someone else is here. She tries to speak into the abyss

“Is someone here? Who are you?”

but the brief reminiscence begins fading away, a thin cloud on a stiff breeze…

 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This entire fic was written while playing the game, so if the dungeons appear a bit extremely convenient, it's actually just because the random generator put it that way.
> 
> A quick question for the comments: Why is Owain brown and green instead of white and green?


End file.
